Que pasa essay

As the CIA later admitted, they should have put the names of Almihdhar and
Alhazmi on a watch list at this time. The watch list, a database known as TIPOFF,
currently consists of over 80,000 names, with about 2,000 new names being added
every month. [ Los Angeles Times,
9/22/02 ] Regulations require that the list is checked for visa applications
or whenever someone enters or leaves the US (note that it is not checked for
domestic flights). Officials are liable to be subject to criminal penalties if
they fail to consult TIPOFF when required. The Congressional inquiry noted that “the threshold for adding a name to TIPOFF is low,” explaining that
even a “reasonable suspicion” that a person is connected with a terrorist
group, warrants the addition of the person’s name to the database. [ Congressional
Intelligence Committee, 9/20/02 ] Why were Almihdhar and Alhazmi, whose names
were reportedly important enough to have been mentioned to the CIA Director several
times that January [ Congressional
Intelligence Committee, 9/20/02 ], not added to the watch list?